Advanced Search Tips

Perform a more detailed search using the pull-down menu with supported field codes as well as the More Search Options section to apply additional limits. Listed fields in the pull-down menu depend on the selected databases.

1. Advanced Search

Boolean, proximity, and field codes are supported. The default is to search for ALL terms entered. Separate terms with OR to find any of the terms. To search for an exact phrase, use "quotation marks" around your search.

When running a search, the search default is set to Anywhere. Anywhere searches the full bibliographic record (all indexed fields) including the full text. Your organization's ProQuest administrator may have chosen to change the default to search Anywhere except full text (NOFT) instead. Anywhere except full text (NOFT) searches the full bibliographic record, but does NOT include a search of the full text. Other search fields can also be chosen from the pull-down menu such as abstract, author, document title, and publication title.

For a full listing, description, and examples of how to format a search using field codes indexed in ProQuest databases, please visit the Searchable fields page of this guide.

2. Limit to: Full text, Peer reviewed

Full text and Peer reviewed are the first limits that appear in the Advanced Search. The visibility of these limits is determined by your organization's ProQuest Administrator Module settings. Whether or not any of these are checked by default is also determined by your organization's ProQuest Administrator Module settings. Visit the ProQuest Administrator Module page to learn more.

Checking the Full text limit will restrict your search to only search and retrieve records containing full text.

Checking the Peer reviewed limit will restrict your search to only search and retrieve records that are indexed in peer reviewed journals. Peer reviewed journals are a subset of scholarly journals and are defined as journals that undergo a review process where other experts (peers) in the field review the work before it is published in the journal. Peer reviewed journals are also commonly known as refereed journals.

3. Publication Date

The Publication Date defaults to search all dates. The most common options include Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 3 months, Last 12 months, Last 3 years, On this date, After this date, Before this date, and Specific date range.

4. More Search Options

The Source type limit refers to the publication type. All are unchecked by default and if you leave them as such when you run your search, all source types will be included in your search. Limiting your search by marking any of the source types will then only run your search to include those source types you selected.

The Document type limit is used to refer to the format of the full-text. This includes articles, blogs, books, company profiles, industry reports, market research, and many others. All are unchecked by default and if you leave them as such when you run your search, all document types will be included in your search. Limiting your search by marking any of the document types will then only run your search to include those document types you selected.

The Language limit is used to restrict your search to documents published in one or more languages. All are unchecked by default and if you leave them as such when you run your search, all languages will be included in your search. Limiting your search by marking any of the languages will then only run your search to include those languages you selected.

5. Result Page Options

Click on the Result page options link to expand the menu of options.

The Sort results by menu controls the sort order of the records that appear in the results page. Sort by relevance, date (oldest first), or date (most recent first). Relevance is determined by an algorithm that factors in the number of times your search terms appear in the record as well where in the record your search terms appear.

Items per page is used to select how many results will display on the results page. Choose from 10, 20, 50, or 100 items.

Duplicates may be available in ProQuest if the item is indexed in more than one database or collection. The default behavior is to suppress the duplicate, however, if you would like the duplicate items to appear in the results, select to include duplicate documents.

By default, ProQuest evaluates the terms you enter to also look for US/UK spelling variants, comparatives (smaller, bigger), superlatives (smallest, biggest), and plurals. This behavior is called ‘search expansion’ and helps you discover relevant results you otherwise would miss. When you select, Show additional terms included in the search, only the search terms with expansions are highlighted in the Results-page search box; additional terms included in your search are displayed in a panel beneath the search box.

6. Thesaurus

A thesaurus is an alphabetical listing of all the subject terms in a single database, used to classify and organize information for that database. The thesaurus shows relationships between terms such as synonyms or related terms, and hierarchical arrangements such as broader terms, or narrower terms. Most ProQuest databases have an associated thesaurus.

Once you select the Thesaurus link, you will have an option to search for terms containing the word you have entered or beginning with the word you have entered. From there you can click on the subject terms to show the relationships with other terms. You can then select the subject terms that you would like to add to your search.

For additional details on how to use the thesaurus and search using the subject field, please see the Searchable fields section of this guide. You can also find additional Thesaurus help from our Thesaurus help file.